Vacant Throne

Having an entire palace filled with people preparing for all sorts of possibilities really took a great deal of the pressure off Alyssa. When Kasita first sent her the Message, she had instantly assumed that she would be handling everything herself.

Her first experience with the Juno Federation came in the form of being briefly captured at a watch post just north of the city while the city’s guard marched against an army of monsters. She and Tzheitza, with an assist from Kasita, had been the ones to handle the actual insurgents behind the attack. Brakkt had been there—that had been where Alyssa first met him—but only after most of the actual incident had been resolved.

The second time Alyssa encountered the Juno Federation had been during their assault on the palace itself using shadow assassins and the gaunt. That time, Alyssa had been the only one to do much of anything. Brakkt had been protecting the First Prince. Irulon had been wounded and those clones she had crafted of herself had not been all that helpful. Kasita did help at times, but had been separated from Alyssa at other times. A few of Irulon’s siblings had wound up assassinated and a captured operative had gotten free, but once again, it had been Alyssa dealing with the controllers of the fairy that had put an actual stop to the incident.

That incident had led directly into Oxart being mind controlled and her subsequent rescue. Which revealed the location of an outpost in the middle of the desert. An outpost that Alyssa had blown up with her first casting of Annihilator. The surviving occupants had then been effectively slaughtered once she and Irulon released Fela from her bindings.

Since then, the Juno Federation had been quiet. Illuna was even further from them than Lyria was and she hadn’t so much as heard their country’s name while there. After suffering two losses in attacks and a massive loss in terms of personnel and infrastructure, Alyssa had somewhat assumed that they wouldn’t try anything else anytime soon. Then again, it had been a few months now. Perhaps this wasn’t soon.

The palace’s war room was busy with people running in and out, bringing new information in every so often. It was a large space, thankfully, given the amount of people. Basically just a regular meeting room except with a large table in the center with a map laid out. One large map of the entire continent with a few other rolls off to the side that could swap it out for a more localized view of the area around Lyria and even a full intracity map.

The Pharaoh, the First Prince, and Brakkt sat on one side of the table, each reviewing papers with various details reported by scouts. Oxart, representing the palace guard, and Decorous, for the city guard, were on another side of the table. Both of them were reading over similar papers. A third side of the table had both of the Pharaoh’s top advisers along with some military adviser. Alyssa sat on the fourth side of the table with Irulon, Companion, and Kasita as ‘special’ consultants. Whatever that meant.

Like all the others, Alyssa had a paper detailing everything they knew about the approaching force.

There was a forward force of thirty to forty men. Two were carrying the banners of some important figure within the Juno Federation, a Conrad of Applebottom. A very unfortunate name, in Alyssa’s opinion. The scouts weren’t sure if Conrad was actually part of the vanguard, but they suspected that whatever representative was there wanted to speak with someone important from Lyria. The Pharaoh or the First Prince. Of course, the advisers were viewing this as a trap of some sort. It was apparently an unusual move. Normally, because this conflict happened on a relatively regular basis, scouts would report back about an approaching army and the Lyria guard would march out to meet them.

However, this vanguard was not alone. They were leading a force of about three thousand five hundred. An army, contrary to Kasita’s earlier report. Though she had probably only been informed of the vanguard at the time. For comparison, their last major assault roughly fifteen months prior consisted of about five or six thousand. Alyssa honestly didn’t see much of a difference between two thousand people when talking in this high of numbers, but apparently the Lyria city guard was far less worried about this than they had been last year.

Decorous had even mentioned how simple it would be to beat them back.

This army was made up of an estimated five hundred bowmen, six hundred with pikes and shields, another four hundred on horses, split between knights and mounted crossbowmen, a few hundred each of footmen, squires, and men at arms. And then there was something new. There were about fifty large iron tubes mounted on wheels, each of which had another cart following behind that carried a few dozen iron balls.

The advisers suspected some form of primitive arcanery. Attempts by the Juno Federation to level the playing field. To take away the one thing that allowed Lyria to stand against their armies despite the city guard numbering only half what the Juno Federation usually attacked with. Lyrian arcanists could effectively nullify hundreds of arrows with varying shielding spells and could decimate large portions of the army with all kinds of spells. So this one unknown was making them all just a little nervous.

Alyssa, however, recognized the iron tubes and balls as something else entirely.

“Does the Juno Federation usually attack with siege weapons?” she asked, interrupting a silence that had been going on since the latest report with the estimated numbers had arrived.

Though, when she got mostly blank stares looking back at her, she had to revise her opinion of this world yet again.

“Like catapults or trebuchets or anything like that?”

“Perhaps we use different words,” Irulon said, though Alyssa was quite sure that was wrong. They used English for everything else and, yes, trebuchet was a French word but plenty of other words had non-English roots that they knew. “Describe them?”

“They’re like… big wooden contraptions that can throw things really far. A trebuchet can launch a ninety kilogram projectile over three hundred meters. Basically, a big huge machine that can throw a rock really far and hard enough that it will destroy buildings and masonry when it hits.”

As she explained, she could see their faces. They didn’t move away from their mild curiosity and confusion in the slightest. A medieval society without siege engines. It puzzled Alyssa for a few moments until she realized the reason behind it. Magic. Arcanists were the siege weapons of this world. Better siege weapons at that. A catapult had a limited number of useful things that it could throw. A boulder, maybe pottery filled with boiling tar or some kind of incendiary material, and, historically speaking, the remains of the dead as a morale damager or biological warfare.

Meanwhile, an arcanist could do just about anything. And for much cheaper too. With a few slips of paper, they could toss a boulder, ignite enemies with a flammable spell, or fling biological agents—probably, she hadn’t actually seen a disease spell or anything similar. But then they could do so much more. The Pharaoh could effectively stop time and take out hundreds of people just with a sword without any threat to himself. Irulon could view alternate futures with Fractal Mirror and choose one in which she took the most optimal path. Lumen fired laser beams. There were spells upon spells that did far crazier things than just laser beams. Alyssa didn’t know every single one of them, but she wouldn’t be surprised to find out that someone had crafted a spell specifically for melting a building’s brick or mortar.

In fact, she would have been willing to put money on it if not for the fact that putting money on anything didn’t really matter to her anymore given her ability to create whatever she wanted from nothing.

“So these things launch boulders?” Brakkt said, looking back down to his paper.

“Not quite, but pretty close. I imagine they’re set to fire those iron balls that were spotted with them. And it isn’t exactly launch. It’s the… It’s the same principle that is behind my guns.” For demonstration purposes, she conjured up a steel plate and dumped a bit of black powder on the top. It wasn’t that difficult to make as she had looked it up before. Basically just some potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur. Not much. Just enough that, when she brought a flame down to it, it would produce a show of sparks and fire, along with the column of smoke. Were this society not magically inclined, just doing that would probably have been a big awe-inspiring event.

The others around the table didn’t look too impressed.

“It doesn’t look like anything special, but—” She conjured up a miniature cannon. Basically just a metal tube with one end closed. The closed end was extremely thick, however. She didn’t want to misjudge how much powder to put in and have it explode in her hands. “—when you compact the powder inside and then place a marble in after…”

Not wanting to accidentally kill anyone, she conjured up a thick wall of acrylic glass between her and the rest of the room. “There will be a little hole on the side. As soon as a flame touches it…”

A loud crack splitting the air made most of the room jump. Alyssa destroyed her miniature cannon, glad it hadn’t turned into a pipe bomb, and the glass wall as well. “As you can see, just a moderate amount of powder in a small container produced enough force to crack the walls of the palace,” she said, walking up to where one of the thick brick wall tiles had split with a spiderweb of cracks around it. “Imagine what those larger cannons will do, both to buildings as well as people that get in the way. And if it hits a person, it won’t just stop at them, but it will probably plow through a good five or ten people behind them as well. Do the scouts have estimates of the exact sizes?” she asked, looking to one of the people in the room who were dedicated Message receiver and senders.

She didn’t get an answer, but the man turned away with a Message spell burning up in his hand.

“A formidable weapon,” the Pharaoh said. “If it can hit several people at once, it may have easily caught us unaware if not for this forewarning. Perhaps enough to cause great losses, though I cannot imagine it alone would allow them to come out victorious in a battle if that is what they intend. But we still have yet to determine if that is what they really intend.”

Oxart scowled, looking toward the Pharaoh. “With all due respect, just what do you presume a force of three thousand marching toward our city, armed with strange new weaponry, means if not an assault?”

“I concur,” Decorous said. “It could be simple to explain the vanguard as a negotiation tactic, threatening us with their new weapons or demanding surrender. Both, perhaps.”

“The vanguard will be arriving at the city walls within three hours at their current pace,” the First Prince said, reading from a fresh sheet of paper handed to him by one of the Message takers. “Their army is trailing almost a half day behind. There may be a follow-up force, though it may merely be supply lines. Scouts are currently attempting to verify. Regardless, we should intercept the vanguard before they reach our fields no matter what we decide about their army. Naturally, I shall be the one to meet them.”

Alyssa wasn’t quite sure why it was natural that the First Prince be the one to meet them. Perhaps to save the Pharaoh if it was a trap? Though Alyssa was fairly certain that the Pharaoh was better equipped with his Time magic to solve just about any situation that could arise.

“My, my. I suppose I should meet with them as well,” Companion said. “Can’t let my dear brother have all the fun.”

The First Prince put on the most faux-polite smile as he said, “I would appreciate it if you would refrain from calling me your brother, Companion.”

“Ugh.” Irulon let out a small groan, shooting a glare at Companion as she did so.

“Brakkt,” the Pharaoh said, ignoring the byplay. “You will join them?”

“Of course,” he said, nodding. “I was already planning on it.”

Alyssa perked up. “Would it pose a problem if I went as well?” As soon as she spoke, Kasita opened her mouth. Thankfully, the mimic thought better of whatever she had been about to say and decided to not comment. She did, however, let out a small giggle.

The Pharaoh and Brakkt were of far more interest to Alyssa, so she paid Kasita little mind.

“If they are interested in diplomacy—”

“Which they aren’t,” Oxart interrupted.

The Pharaoh continued without any sign of acknowledging the interruption. “Then I would prefer to not have threatening elements too close to any discussions.”

“I can hardly be as threatening as Brakkt. Or even Companion. I look like any regular human.”

“It isn’t a matter of imposing presence or monstrous characteristics. We are obviously not going to send anyone alone and unarmed.” The Pharaoh leaned forward, planting his elbows on the table as he gestured with one hand to his own face. “Rather, it is your eyes that are the problem. Tenebrael’s visage is well known. Equally well-known is the Juno Federation’s absolute detestation for Tenebrael. It is, after all, the public basis for a majority of their grievance against our people. Having someone arrive with such a distinguishing feature carries the possibility of ending negotiations before they start.”

Pressing her lips together, Alyssa raised a hand. She pinched her fingers together and pulled sunglasses from thin air. Sliding them onto her face, she gave the Pharaoh a look that he would be entirely unable to read because the glasses were highly mirrored. “Problem solved.”

“I’ve heard that you have had your eyewear melt from your face in the past.”

“Who told you that?” Alyssa shot back, though she could probably guess that it was someone at this table. They were the only ones who would have seen such incidents, after all. Though it could also have been any of the many people who had been present at the Illuna guild building the one time they tripped Fela…

The Pharaoh, naturally, didn’t respond to her question. He simply asked one of his own. “Is it true?”

“Maybe. But only when I’ve been upset or have used my power. If these guys are negotiating, then I probably won’t be using any power. If they are here to declare war, then I hardly think a flash of Tenebrael’s eyes will make the situation much worse. What will they do? Declare war twice?”

Letting out a small hum, the Pharaoh looked to his side. Not toward Brakkt, but toward the First Prince. He didn’t ask anything. Apparently, he didn’t need to.

“It is a minor risk,” the First Prince said. “I am in agreement with our guard captains. We can approach with open intentions if that is what you think is best, but I predict that this will devolve to a fight regardless. Having someone who can scar the moon present will undoubtedly come in handy if not necessary.”

“Very well. I’ll leave it to you.”

“We will leave within the hour,” the First Prince said. “Make your preparations accordingly now. Meet back here in forty minutes for any last updates to the situation.”

With that said, the table adjourned. Brakkt left to equip his full armor, as did his elder brother, while Companion hummed aloud about not having a set of armor to wear that was just as impressive as theirs. Then she turned to Alyssa and gave her a look.

“Do you want your dragon scale armor… uh… back?”

“For giving me this body, I think you have earned keeping it. Though if you could craft a new set of it, that would be appreciated.”

“I can make a lot of things on demand, but I haven’t looked into dragon scales at all. Maybe when we have more time.”

“You are absolutely no fun.”

“Yeah. I know.” Though it wasn’t that bad of an idea. If this was some kind of ambush, an arrow might hit one of them before they even knew what was going on. A bit of armor… probably wouldn’t be that hard to make. Of course, she had not looked up much on the topic of armor smithing. While she could easily create metal plates in the shape of an armor set, there was probably a bit on the insides that needed to be done in order to make it wearable, comfortable, and properly fitting.

Then again, there wasn’t any need to be beholden to medieval armor…

How well does Kevlar fare against arrows and swords?

“Actually,” Alyssa said… “I might be able to make you something. I don’t know if thirty minutes is enough, but… let’s go see, I suppose.”